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by NanDeMoNai
Summary: Sometimes relationships aren't as clean as simple as we wish it to be. [Oneshot, Yaoi, NejiNaru but hints heavily of SasuNaru] Please read and rate! Thank you.


**A/N: Hey there. This is my first fanfic here, so please read and rate! I'm a bit messed up, so I like pairing guy/guy together, thus the yaoi. Though I'm more of a SasuNaru person, NejiNaru amuses me. So, uh... Here we go! **

It was a calm, if not mundane night, with the stars sparkling weakly, their usual shine dulled by the full moon's glare. As the round star grinned down, she could see a reflection of her, returning her lovely smile. A wide river was acting as a mirror for her, so that she could admire her own beauty.

Near her looking glass were three shinobi. They were returning from a mission, escorting a man through some mountains from robbers, a normal D-rank mission. Now they stood in a rough triangle, deciding to call it a night. Among two dark haired shinobi stood the glaringly bright yellow of a happy-go-lucky blonde.

A girl with her hair in two buns and a light pink shirt had one of her hands on her hip, looking at the two with a slight smirk. She was waiting for her companion to finish scouting out a water source.

And so he was, with pale grey eyes and veins bulging at the side of his face, looking around calmly, his face so stoic and quiet. His thumbs were slightly tucked beneath the straps of his large backpack as he did so. "Hurry up." An impatient and whining voice broke his concentration.

His eyes returned to normal and he turned his body a bit to face the last of the three of them. A small frown of displeasure touched his lips as he looked at the rookie. The glare that he sent to him went unbidden by the blonde, who only stared back with equal defiance, a frown on his face and his hands behind his head.

For a few seconds, they continued their staring contest before he sighed a bit then said, "Tenten, can you refill some water and catch a few fish for us? We're running out of food and there's still one more day left before we reach Konoha. There's a river down there," Neji pointed to the direction of the aforementioned river. He looked inquiringly at his teammate. "Naruto and I will get the wood for a fire."

"Sure," the girl held out her hand as a gesture to ask for their bamboo containers. Neji handed his to Tenten calmly, but Naruto had pulled his out too fast, thus nearly knocking her out unconscious if she had not quickly dodged it. He gave her his ridiculously large grin as an apology. Tenten only narrowed her eyes and pressed her lips together in annoyance before bounding away through the trees.

The two boys watched her fading pink shirt before setting off in the opposite direction into the dense forest. They worked in silence as they looked for suitable branches for the job. When they were halfway done, Naruto stopped and straightened, turning back to look at Neji with a look of contemplation on his face.

The older boy halted as well and stood up, sensing his teammate's wish to speak to him. "What is it?" he inquired with a monotone voice, his arms in an odd angle from all the branches.

"Neji, have you kissed anyone before?"

"What?" he gave him an odd look. "What kind of question is that?"

"I did. I guess I did," Naruto continued, casting Neji's question to oblivion. He remembered that day when he accidentally kissed Sasuke. The unpleasantness of teeth clashing onto teeth. His lips curled into a little smirk before it was replaced by a look of depression when he thought of his friend, somewhere with Orochimaru. He shrugged the thought away and smiled, trying to hide his emotions. He still wasn't over the fact that Sasuke was gone.

The song of the crickets concealed the awkwardness of silence again as Naruto recommenced their task, acting as if he hadn't asked Neji that question at all.

Tsunade had sent him out on so many missions just to distract him from running away and trying to save Sasuke, he knew, but every now and again, every time he saw Sakura or had a quiet moment, he would try and devise a plan that he could use in order to steal his friend away from that evil person.

Acting like normal was difficult for Naruto, but he didn't want anyone to think that he was too worried about the safety of that bastard. Everyone around him would joke and talk to him like before, but he could still feel their comforting glances that they so skillfully, and some times unskillfully, hid away with laughing eyes.

For a brief moment, Neji just stood there, watching as his teammate continue gather branches. It confused him a bit, to be asked such an odd question, ignored, then left off as if nothing had happened. It was a strange and broken conversation, but it left him thinking about the feelings Naruto had to fight with daily.

Both of them went on with the quiet chore before deciding that they had enough and returning to the spot they had found. They put aside the branches and cleared a patch for the fire, gathering large stones for the wood. The two of them carefully arranged the wood and lit it with a flint. All the while, they didn't say a word, only poking at the newborn fire and looking up occasionally to see if Tenten was back.

The mood that surrounded them was strange and uncomfortable. Suffocating them, almost. It was as if the night had turned into something vile and was pressing down on them like a heavy blanket.

Naruto jerked his head up a bit, obviously lost in thoughts a while before, and stood up, causing some joints to crack from the position he was in for such a long time. Neji suddenly sprung up as well. Before Naruto could walk away to wherever, the older teen grabbed his arm and yanked him back so that their bodies were loosely pressed together.

"What're you—" There was only a split second when Naruto was about to pull away and ask what in the world Neji was doing. And yet, Neji somehow managed to use that split second to his advantage and pulled the shorter boy even closer and pressed his lips onto Naruto's. Since the blonde's mouth was slightly open from his oncoming question, Neji easily slipped his tongue into the unsuspecting boy's mouth and kissed him gently.

Despite all half-hearted efforts to try and wiggle away, Naruto simply couldn't because of Neji's arms, which were around his back, constricting him. Though they were firm, the hold definitely wasn't an iron vice grip. He could have pushed Neji away, but it appeared that he really didn't want to.

The usually piercing gaze of the cool, grey eyes were now shielded away with lidded eyes and close-up Neji looked so peaceful. Not to mention the fact that his kiss was growing more passionate and Naruto couldn't help but to admit it felt rather good, against all the abruptness and strangeness of it all.

He had just begun to respond to the sign of affection when he suddenly found himself embracing a breeze and panting a bit from a slight breath shortage. "Tenten's coming back," was his explanation, but he never got to ask Neji why he had kissed him in the first place.

Neji's face didn't betray the fact that he just kissed his male teammate. It was as calm as before. Not even the slightest blush was hinted. Naruto on the other hand was turning red with embarrassment. Beside that time he accidentally kissed Sasuke, this was the second time he kissed a boy. A boy…

Despite his crush on Sakura, which had been steadily waning for some time, he had maintained a friend status with everyone. Neji was usually indifferent to him, so why had he suddenly done something like that? It confused the poor boy to no end.

"I'm going to get more wood in case we run out," he said shortly before leaving Naruto to puzzle over the kiss with the moon and stars.

---

The fish that Tenten caught was now resting in Naruto's stomach, making him feel warm and drowsy. But still, he couldn't fall asleep. He was still wondering why Neji had done what he did only a few short hours ago.

He still could feel the slight roughness of his chapped lips as he kissed him so abruptly. He could remember even breathing of his older teammate on his face and the lingering taste of him in his mouth. The soft, warm wetness of the kiss that had shocked him so much at first… It was such a hard thing to comprehend…

Naruto could hear Neji take a deep breath and let it out, then shifted around in his sleeping bag. He opened his eyes and glanced over Tenten to see that Neji was still sleeping. He turned his head again and stared blankly at the top of the tent. It was late. He should be sleeping, but all the thoughts in his mind wouldn't let him rest.

Finally, he gave up. There's no point in worrying over such matters in the dead of night. With a sigh, he turned away and fell asleep. The matter will just have to wait for later.

And so several weeks passed, nothing else happened between Neji and Naruto. Although for a few days after that incident, some of the people in Konoha were worried about him since he became so unnaturally calm and quiet… With some weird, superhuman ability, Neji was able to act as if nothing at all had happened and still treated Naruto the same.

---

"Yeah, see you tomorrow Shikamaru, Chouji!" Naruto waved to his two friends and walked off. The three of them had been wandering around the training areas and messing around for a while. It was starting to get late and it was time for them to return to their families. While Shikamaru and Chouji had people waiting for them at home, Naruto didn't. So instead, he continued his aimless loitering.

---

"Neji, are you okay?" Tenten and Lee ran over to their teammate, who was now crouching on the ground, clutching his right shoulder.

"Yeah, I think I just strained a muscle or something. I'll rest up tonight and I'll be fine by tomorrow. We can continue training, so don't worry," he stood up and looked at the two of them with his usual uncaring expression.

"If you say so, Neji. We'd better stop for today. See you tomorrow!" Tenten smiled reassuringly at him and ran off.

"Hope you feel better!" Lee gave him his infamous "nice-guy" smile and went off in another direction, leaving Neji alone.

"Sure…" he muttered after the two of them were gone. He tried shrugging a bit to test out his shoulder and grimaced as pain laced through his body. Sighing, he walked away from the training grounds and headed home.

He was almost out of the forest when he saw someone coming to him from his left. Neji stopped and turned, just in time to see Naruto leap out of a tree and skid past him a bit.

"Hey, Neji!" he greeted in an overly loud voice and slapping him on his right shoulder.

"Ah!" His guard was down when Naruto jumped out and he wasn't excepting him to hit him for no reason and his punishment for being so lax was incredible pain.

"'ey, what's wrong?" Naruto leaned closer and peered at Neji's downturned face.

"I just strained a muscle on my shoulder," he growled, clutching at his shoulder again.

"Oops," he laughed meekly and rubbed the back of his head. "Hey, I know!" Naruto perked up and dragged Neji over to a stump, shoving him down on it so that he was sitting.

When Neji looked behind him, he saw Naruto standing there with a malicious looking grin on his face. He was cracking his knuckles ominously.

"I learned to do back massages in order to persuade Old Lady Tsunade to give me more exciting missions than the boring D-Rank ones," he explained, allowing Neji to relax once more. For a moment there, he feared for his well being. "Sorry, this might hurt."

Without any further warning, Neji felt his arm being pulled back and yelped in pain. "Told ya," was his only response. Then he felt Naruto making his arm go in small circles. Thankfully, this movement didn't make him yell. It actually felt rather good.

As minutes passed, Naruto continued his massage all the while talking about nonsense and random things. Almost absentmindedly, he continued his task and chatted away amiably. It made the situation better than just sitting there in the silence of a tomb.

"There we go, feel better?"

Neji moved his arm a bit experimentally. No pain. "Yeah, thanks." _I see why the Hokage is so easily persuaded by Naruto_, he commented silently, admiring Naruto's skill to massage so well.

Naruto's carefree laugh rang around the area they were in. "Hey… Uh, Neji?" Naruto's eyes fell and he stood there, looking uncomfortable.

"Hm?"

"Th-the other day, why did you…" he trailed off when he saw Neji approach him again. "N-Neji?" He took a step back and tried to put some distance between the two of them but failed. Soon, he was backed up against a tree.

Neji looked at him with half-lidded eyes, almost like he was dream walking or something. He watched Naruto swallow nervously and claw at the tree's trunk. "Why what, Naruto?"

The voice Neji was using was so different from his usual tone that it unnerved him. He barely had any voice left in him to speak. Neji's actions were starting to scare him. His attempt to croak out a sentence failed and he cleared his throat.

Is this the Neji he knew? Or is it someone else that transformed into him? Different situations and answers raced in Naruto's mind, but none of them made any sense. This didn't make any sense!

He chuckled a bit as he neared his victim. Poor Naruto looked so much like a trapped cat in a corner. "I'll just pretend you asked me a full question then," he said in a low voice. "I kissed you to make you feel better," he stopped inches away from Naruto's face, "since Sasuke's absence has made you feel so bad…"

Incoherent words slipped past his dry lips and he licked them to try and make them work. "B-but—" He was cut off when Neji leaned down and kissed him again.

"You can tell me to stop if you don't want me to… 'comfort' you…" He said it in such a suggestive way that Naruto shuddered. He found that his heart was racing. His lips were parted and he was panting. Although this was a strange situation, Naruto's eyes betrayed that he was waiting for another kiss.

"Neji, won't your family be worried about you?" He heard as he watched the constellations and stars above them. "I'll think of something to tell them," he reassured the younger boy and started rubbing his scalp slowly.

---

"Hmm…" he breathed slowly and in a few minutes he fell asleep. Neji laid awake, wondering about various things, all the while still petting his lover. He shifted his head and stared at the peaceful face next to him before hugging him and falling asleep as well.

---

No one suspected them of their relationship because other than a few glances at each other and some lovemaking in some secluded area in the dead of night, the two of them didn't do anything else. They were never seen together in the daylight. Their act was flawless. It was as if they were still mere friends.

Neither of them had said "I love you" to the other. Perhaps they were only too shy or perhaps if they said that, they would be lying. And the relationship was a strange thing. It was not the true love that you have read about in fantasy stories, but neither was it a simple friendship.

Whether it was out of pure lust or confusion, of misunderstood feelings, lies or truth, or maybe just a brotherly affection that was taken to the next level, the two of them never knew.

Several times when Naruto was too depressed about Sasuke, he would find Neji hiding away somewhere waiting for him. When he found him Neji would always walk toward the crying Naruto and hug him. They would stand there silently, one head leaning across the other's chest and the older one resting his forehead in the blonde's hair. Never was a word exchanged on these occasions.

At times when the two of them bump into each other on accident, the older of them would smile at him and kiss him lightly on the cheek before rubbing his hair and continuing his walk. Naruto would describe it to himself as a forlorn smile but always mustered up a grin for him when they met. Although he always wanted to hold Neji close to him and smell his scent for longer than a few seconds, his heart felt that it was not enough.

Neji's embrace and smiles, his kisses and touches, none of them were enough. It was as if Naruto's heart was opened and waiting for the flood of feelings to fill him, but it was never enough. Not from Neji.

They both knew that Neji was merely filling in the empty spot. A stand-by for the missing Sasuke. Their picture would only be a brotherly picture with Neji with his arm across Naruto's shoulders and the blonde would have a smile on his face.

The two of them knew that, if one day, Sasuke came back, Neji would voluntarily fade into the background and watch the two of them with an amused smile. He would watch the two of them calmly as Naruto clings onto an aggravated looking Sasuke. They both knew.

And when the time would come, Neji would become a faint memory of comfort for Naruto.


End file.
